Insight To Help You Prevent, Reverse And Treat Dental Cavities

Keeping all your teeth healthy and intact is an important part of having a healthy lifestyle. Poor dental hygiene can decrease your overall body health and can adversely affect your physical appearance and your self confidence. You can help improve your body's oral health by preventing cavities, reversing any oral decay, and treat any negatively impacted teeth through various methods, and here are some tips to help you.

Prevent

Keeping your teeth free of decay consists of taking little steps each day throughout your life to keep your teeth clean and well-maintained. It is important to brush your teeth at least twice a day with a soft-bristled toothbrush to remove plaque build-up regularly from your teeth. Plaque can harden into tartar on your teeth within 24 to 48 hours, so it is important to remove it on a regular basis, and use a soft-bristled toothbrush to do this will protect your gums and your tooth enamel from damaged an abrasive toothbrush can cause.

Plaque is quite easy to remove from your teeth and does not require scraping, and it only needs to be gently wiped from your teeth. In fact, you could use a wash cloth to wipe plaque from your teeth if you were able to reach all areas around your teeth with one. You should also floss each day to remove any food particles and plaque build-up between your teeth that your toothbrush may miss.

Visit your dentist a few times each year to check for any oral decay and other oral problems and to have any hardened tartar removed from your teeth. When you miss any pockets of plaque, they will harden into tartar and will need to be scraped from your teeth. Tartar contains bacteria that will eat away at the enamel of your teeth and cause cavities.

Reverse

If you do have any cavities that have begun to form on the surface or within your teeth, you can change your diet to help boost your body's health to help your teeth heal where decay has formed. It is recommended to avoid sugar in your diet, as sugar can de-calcify your teeth and feed cavity-causing bacteria in your mouth. Avoid eating soda, candy, and other foods with added sugar.

Make sure you are getting enough calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and vitamin D, along with other fat soluble vitamins A, K, and E which are all helpful in maintaining the health of your teeth. You can take these in a daily supplement or eat foods rich in their nutrients.

It is important to avoid foods that contain phytic acid, which blocks your body's absorption of the minerals and enzymes your teeth need from food to stay healthy. Foods containing high levels of phytic acid include beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds. However, you can eat these foods if you soak, sprout, and ferment them first, which will eliminate the phytates from the foods and allow your body to absorb the proper nutrients to keep your teeth healthy.

Treat

If you have a tooth that has oral decay that has negatively affected its structure, you can see your dentist about your options for repairing the tooth. In many situations, your dentist can fit your tooth with a dental crown, which keeps the root and base of the remaining tooth and caps off the top of it so you can resume normal eating, drinking, and socializing. Your dentist will make your custom-fit crown from ceramic, porcelain, resin, or stainless steel, depending on where within your mouth the crown will sit and if it will be visible.

Your dentist will repair and fill any decay in the remaining tooth's base and prepare it with a temporary crown while your permanent crown is being custom made. Once the permanent crown is created, your dentist will remove the temporary crown and fit the new crown upon your remaining tooth, attaching it with a permanent adhesive material and you can resume your normal eating, chewing, and smiling.

Use this information to help you prevent, reverse, and treat to repair any oral decay and help improve your smile.

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